Sunday Homilies with Fr. Mike Schmitz - 02/26/20 He Sees. He Cares.

Episode Date: February 27, 2020

Homily from Ash Wednesday. Your Father sees you. Your Father hears you. We all desire to be heard and seen...to know we matter. Jesus reveals that even your actions in secret are known by the Father and they matter to Him. Mass Readings from February 26, 2020: Joel 2:12-18 Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-14, 172 Corinthians 5:20-6:2 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

So, I was thinking a lot about my, I have a nephew, I have a couple nephews, and one of them, he's about in seventh grade or so. And I just noticed, I never noticed this about him until my dad pointed it out that he, he's an awesome kid. He's always been precocious. He's been like the most precocious of my family members, which means I like him more than everyone else. But he's, you know those people in your life who are noise makers? Like in the sense that they just, they can't like sit there and just be quiet. Maybe you're one of those people, and this is like the most, the torturous hour of your life is, mask, you're like, I have to sit here.

So Alex, my nephew, is exactly this person. And I never noticed, as my dad pointed out, he's like, Alex, has to always be making noise. He has to always be fidgeting. He's always doing something. He's always saying something. He's always just like, even he's not even saying words. He's like, blah, blah, blah. I mean, literally would do that. And he pointed, my dad pointed this out. And it was

one of those, like, window breaking moments where I was like, oh my gosh, he always, he is never quiet. And rather than, like, getting mad at him, I'm just like, this is fascinating. It's just like, I'm not annoyed by him. in any way, shape, or form. It's just like, oh, I kind of get it. He's the youngest.

And I was the middle in my family, so I think I was the noise maker of my family, which is why I always want to have a microphone in front of me. But, like, because why? Because if you're the youngest, maybe you're through the middle, no one cares about you. No one even looks at you. And you have to, like, kind of assert the fact,

I exist. And Alex, I think every time he walks into a room, what he's doing when he's making that noise. He's not trying to annoy anybody. He's just trying to draw attention to the fact that, like, I'm a real boy. Like, I exist. And I just.

want that to, I mean, and that's, the thing is, like, I'm not annoyed by that because it's all of us. Like, even if you were the oldest in your family and everyone loved you so much, you've got all the attention, you have all the baby photos, all about you, whatever, you're still welcome here. So, but every one of us has that sense of, like, I want to be heard. Like, every one of us has this thing in us that wants to be seen. I mean, think about, I don't know if any of your team Madison. So season 24, it's almost over.

And down to two now, really, I think, as Madison just dropped out, didn't she? Am I accurate on this? This is The Bachelor, for those of you who have other things to do on Monday night. But the whole story, right, of Madison is like everyone's, well, I don't know everyone, but... Sorry, full disclosure, I've never watched the show, but I do go online and read about stuff. That's how I stay hip to the culture. As far as I understand it, Madison is the good girl. Is this kind of like my accurate assessment of this?

Like Madison is the one who's like, you're kind of like, why are you on this show? She's like, oh, I'm taking myself for marriage. It's awesome. That's wonderful. But like, why did you join the bachelor then? Like, especially if she knew who she was going to be like competing for. Like, okay, that kind of, no offense. Whatever, we're going to leave right there.

So she's, you know, it's so interesting that if you know the story, she kind of, again, She's the good one of all the bachelorets, essentially. And you ask the question, like, okay, so that's so great, why do you choose her and all these kind of things? But my question is, again, it goes back to this. Madison, why are you on this show? And the answer is so obvious. The answer is the reason why everyone's on the show.

To find love. No, false. That's what you write down when you're applying for the show. The real answer is to get more Instagram followers and to maybe launch a career in the show. in media. That is why, right? Am I wrong on this one? We're on Team Father Mike right now? Okay, we just want to make sure that I didn't just lose everybody like, no, that show is real, that's love. But the reason, and I don't fault her, great, right? She's on the show because everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants to be heard. We all want

to be acknowledged. I mean, honestly, that is why social media exists. Sometimes people think it exists simply to creep on others. You know who you are. But in some way, so many other ways, social media exists, and why is it so popular? Why is it so, like, why does it draw us in so much? It's because you post something and you want people to hear you. They can tweet something and you just want some acknowledgement. I had this random thought. I thought it'd be funny, so I put it out there. Because every one of us, we just are desperate. We want to be heard. We want to be seen. That's why the dopamine rush of like the like or the follow is so powerful, it's not because of like you've got a thumbs up, a virtual digital thumbs up,

it's because someone heard me. Like someone saw me. I was reading an article the other day that talked about how that's one of the reasons why social media can be so devastating to young people, like incredibly young people, because not only can you be harassed, not only can there be bad content out there, but there's something that is potentially incredibly painful. here's a young person who just like puts their thought out there, puts their thing out there, puts their image, whatever the thing is, and they don't get any response. And just, I don't know if you've ever experienced that, but that can be, it's so weirdly painful because the response basically is none.

You're not heard. Like no one sees you. No one hears you. And you might not even, the temptation is I don't even matter. And this is at the heart of every single one of us. And this is, I think at the heart of, in so many ways what God is telling us today, at this the first day of light and this Ash Wednesday. And Jesus, and the St. Paul in the letter to the Corinthians, he says to this,

to all of us who are out there going like, does anyone, is anybody see me? Does anybody, do I matter? Does anybody hear me? And God says this. He says, in an acceptable time, I heard you. Here's the Lord's declaration over like everyone here. He said, no, no, actually, I do hear you. In an acceptable time, the day of salvation, I have.

helped you. Because it's this wound, this desire, this longing in every one of our hearts to be seen. What Jesus is saying in the gospel today is, he's like, I know, I know the temptation. The temptation you and I have is, will they see me? The temptation you and I have is I'm going to do that thing and make that noise, sit in at the kitchen table, I'm just going to kind of sing a little bit and make some noise. And even if I get negative attention, it's some attention. And I, and you see me now. But here's Jesus who says, actually, every time you pray, your father sees you. every time you do something for someone else, he sees you. Even every time you fast, you said no to the cupcake.

Your father sees that. And this is one of the hearts of the gospel, is that even when no one else sees you, your dad sees you. Even when no one else hears you, your dad in heaven hears you. And even when you don't seem to matter to anyone else, Jesus is saying, actually, you matter to the Father. In fact, this is the challenge.

This is one of the invitations of Ash Wednesday. You know, today is a fast day. They're like, oh, shoot. It's a day where we don't eat meat. We don't snack between meals. We have really, you know, limited food. And sometimes we can look at that and say, like, how ridiculous. Does God even care?

Are you kidding me? Okay, had some Tostitos, whatever. What does it matter? Or again, I said no to, like someone offered me a burger, and I said, oh, no, I'll get the filial fish instead. Like, why does that, why would, doesn't it seem kind of silly on one hand that that would even make a difference? Or even, like, you know, all Fridays in Lent are abstaining for meat, so we don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent. And that's kind of one of those things where it's like, oh, that seems silly.

Why would that even make a difference? Or whatever it is that you planned on doing for Lent, even like my older sister, I mentioned before, who gave up watermelon for Lent, like, what a heroic sacrifice? That's Alex's mom, by the way. She's just going to those things. Why would that even make a difference? When Jesus is saying today in the gospel, saying that even if you gave up watermelon for lent,

even if you just said an easy no to the piece of cake today, even if you said an easy no to whatever that hot dog, I don't know what it was, the father sees that. Whatever it is that you're going to do for Lent, like I'm going to do five extra minutes of prayer. That might not be impressive to anyone around you, but your dad in heaven sees that and says, that matters to me. I don't know if you've ever stopped to realize that fact,

that what might be completely unimpressive to everyone around us, the father sees it, and he says, that matters to me. Because ultimately, our dad in heaven, he sees you, and what he's saying is, you matter to me. And it's one of the reasons even why, this is the last thing, it's one of the reasons even why we have, like, ashes on our forehead. not just to be weird and like have people to identify the Catholics in the room

or you're in the room so I guess there you are someone once told me that it was like before they had Catholic Match.com it was the way you could say oh hey you're Catholic you were at Mass today I can tell now do want to not have meat later but we have those ashes on our forehead not to proclaim to the world that we're better than anyone else

we don't have ashes on our forehead to proclaim that we're doing anything special, that we're anything special. In fact, the ashes mean that, like, I know that my decisions matter, and I've made some bad decisions. That's what the ashes are. It's something good that's been broken down, it's been burnt up. The ashes in so many ways represent our sins. It's not like how awesome we are.

It's actually, wow, my dad in heaven, he sees me and he knows me, and I matter to him, and I've failed. that the ashes, they actually, they mean that I'm a sinner. But as you know this, they're in the shape of a cross. And that means that even when I'm broken, even when I'm most broken, even when I've made those decisions, I still have a savior. I still have a God who sees me. You still have a God who knows you. You still have a God who hears you. Even when we're at our absolute worst, even when we've been grounded down to, we still

have a God who looks at us and declares over every one of us. You still matter. And I still hear you. And I see you. and I love you. So in just a second, we're going to get these ashes onto the altar, and we're going to bless them. And you're going to come forward, and I just invite you to come forward like normally, like Holy Communion. And myself or one of the other people distributing ashes

are going to say these words that they're going to say, repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. What is it that you're believing? What you're believing is, believe that the Father in heaven sees you. believe that the Father in heaven hears you. Believe that what you choose to do matters to the Father in heaven.

Repent and believe the gospel. And you say amen, and that amen means, I believe it. I know it. He hears me. He sees me. And he loves me.